an update on things

[K-Man]

Just seen t'he Coniston thing has well which is ridiculous.Why not have a games night at t'he xbar get people in get all t'he bar money. It's good that ideas are being thought of but that is a poor idea at best.

[Jonty]

These shirt delays will cost the club much needed revenue. Are there no solutions- ie- Could Coral endorse an existing logo that will enable the printers to deliver the shirts without further delay? Or, could we go to another shirt printer that can deal with it promptly and deliver a batch of the shirts before the season starts?

[vskohz]

Thank you oldtimer for your input.

It would appear that I was indeed telling the TRUTH!!!!!!!!!

Does someone have egg on their face!!!!!!

To clear up any other matters.....

THE WHOLE FANS UPDATE IS THE TRUTH!!!!!!!

I don't waste my time writing lies as it would be a total waste of both my time and yours.

John Mackay

Please tell me that an actual director didn't just write this. Unprofessional at best, downright embarrasing at worst

[DaveBarter]

On reading that website post.... note.... apologise not apologies...(Bugbear of mine)

I cannot fathom the fact that the sponsorship draw only raised £8k, I mean we managed to raise £5k of that.... £3k from all the businesses in the area seems okay but in actual fact its not that great!!

So this brings me onto my main point... what the hell is with this kit, we have deadlines, we dont allow changes to the designs after this deadline has gone... being firm would have ensured that this change and the resulting delay would never have happened.
Also the sponsor pulling out at the last minute is simply unacceptable, have the club never heard of contracts, once they sign on (which I am assuming is an oversight once again) they can't just pull out, they are committed.... END OF!

The club has once again waved goodbye to a vast amount of their shirt sales by appearing tinpot once again.

Shall we place the order now for next season to give time for 14 designs, colour changes, researching, testing, sponsorship, a partridge in a pear tree oh and of course the inevitable promises which fail to materialise.

John this is not a rant at you but its frustrating the amount of times we have heard this problem will be solved and then POW, broken again.

You're not allowed to pull up people for spelling mistakes - you get called a grammar nazi. I was. This probably goes for pointing out missing apostrophes too.

[woodley]

We are becoming a laughing stock and the season has not started yet ! All lies with the board on this one and they deserve everything that comes there way with this one !

[Coco Jimbo]

b.o.d out!! this club has been a joke for too long mow ....momey pitch excuses blah blah ffs i honestly believe the likes of steve,stu,monkey man tidds,becca,burns,ste even malcolm leave her alone could do better than this lot

[barrowranger]

You're not allowed to pull up people for spelling mistakes - you get called a grammar nazi. I was. This probably goes for pointing out missing apostrophes too.

I'm not fussed about spelling etc on here, but on an official website it matters.

Anyway to clarify I think some of these things are beyond B.O.D control and actually the job they are doing at allowing DB to construct a decent looking team is brilliant.

Just wish we could get these things sorted.

Surely any supplier would be glad of the business and push to get things done to a deadline.

We need to put in place a cut off date for everything next season. Sponsorship, Branding, Colours, Supplier, deadlines.... Tbh a company who misses a deadline by so many weeks should be penalised. We need these kind of things writing into contracts rather than just hoping they will magically work.

Fingers crossed for next season when I may just have a BAFC shirt before my early august birthday!

[Reg]

Thank you oldtimer for your input.

It would appear that I was indeed telling the TRUTH!!!!!!!!!

Does someone have egg on their face!!!!!!

To clear up any other matters.....

THE WHOLE FANS UPDATE IS THE TRUTH!!!!!!!

I don't waste my time writing lies as it would be a total waste of both my time and yours.

John Mackay

Fans rep, trying to rub fans noses in it.

Funny and professional.

[dcarradus]

Its a disgrace about the shirts not being ready its the same story every season its funny how most other clubs have their shirts available pre season and the coniston idea is crap why not do something in the town who wants to travel upto coniston would of been better to do something at carlisle game or morecambe game come on board think things through properley and you might make us some much needed money.

[barrowfan_chris]

Absolute joke the club is being run by a bunch of men in blazers.As for the rant by John that was cringeworthy at best, engage your brain.

Things that have [SwearFilter] me off so far....

Season Tickets - no early announcements and no promotion to sell them.

Friendly prices - £8 to watch a Friendly against some weak opposition and the delayed announcements about prices,times and games being called off.

Shirts - once again we will start the season without the shirts for sale absolute farce fed up with excuses.

Pitch - Absolutely shocking i hope we aren't paying someone for the privillage.

Club website - Slow for updates and poor design. Shite.

Coniston - Are we being serious how hard is it to bring the players through to Barrow for an afternoon and evening. Asking fans to travel to Coniston is insulting and ridiculous.

Volunteers - Another piece of poor PR from the club not very well handled.

This club needs people that can dedicate time to it not just during match days and i feel if we lose this redevelopment bid things can only get worse.

[Bingo]

The club want to save money and cut corners at almost every opportunity. We need a new full time commercial manager/ general manager - I actually think we can't afford not to have one. There is a lack of vision - we should be gearing up for that first league game of the season, the shirts thing happens every single year.

John is obviously a passionate man and you can't fault him for that, in fact I welcome the fact he comes on here and interacts with the fans. The work he and others do behind the scenes is brilliant.

[barrowranger]

Chris thats the best thing you have ever said...

Volunteers program was a joke,

£8 for a friendly are you joking, we dont even know who half the players are, we apparently have batman turning out for us next week!

Seriously B.o.D Drag the team through to Barrow for the afternoon, walk round walney would hardly go a miss if thats what they are after. The problem being that all these hair-brained schemes which may well work are announced far to late and give us no time to plan for save for them. All these things should have been booked in by the start of summer.

As for suggesting that we pay £10 to go for a walk with the players, what a joke.... meet and greet fundraiser at the club, maybe £2 to get something signed by the players, you may well have a chance of getting some people there. What is really annoying is that they are suggesting that they need the fans to go to make it affordable for the club. Bugger me last time I checked a walk through the hills was ruddy well free!!

Rant over

[GTBLUE]

Dear Mr MacKay

I have near heard anything so stupid in my life as going to Coniston to meet my home town of BARROW's players. I am a single parent with a limited income, of course my son wants to meet his heros but lets think about this and my limited weekly budget.

Travel to Coniston = £10.00 ish, Me and my sons admisson cost = £20.00, Refreshments = £10.00 ish Humm total of £40.00, £80.00 if we did the two events.

If my sums are right and I go to one event, that is equiveant to: buying a childs shirt for my son or for us to watch 2 home games - I know what I would prefer!!!

For me it makes more sense to have a stroll round to Holker Street to meet the players (walk round the rezza and slag banks if they feel a walk is necessary) and then have a couple of drinks in the cross bar, meet a lot more fellow fans and have a good start of the season, this costing a hell of a lot less!!

P.S. Are you aware that using capitals in text does mean that you are shouting at your own fans when you are trying to defend yourself in your replies.

Regards Pinkbird

Brilliant post from someone living in the real world. Respect to you.

[barrowaberdeen]

In fairness at least John is trying to reply honestly to queries, so we know why the latest shirts debacle occurred. Although the Coniston idea isn't maybe the best, at least there's an effort to come uo with something.The tone of the reply is defensive and strident, which is unfortunate to say the least. However, I think it's fair to say that the idea of fans liason here is to advocate the clubs position on matters to fans, rather than the other way round.Oh well.

I am much more frustrated that in the run up to the start of the season, with ST's, membership renewals, pre season buzz etc we have reduced opening hours. That is utter madness- I know for a fact, volunteers could have manned the desk and the shop. How can a corporate guest with an enquiry be put down for a match? Is anyone calling these people? Even if someone was able to take messages, so that whoever is coming in on the days open can deal with them, surely that is better? It makes us look unprofessional as a club. The support base beyond those at the centre of the club are often bright committed, skilled people, it's not a dangerous hinterland of ne'er do wells!

This could all have been avoided if someone 3 months ago had got a diary out and thought about what would be required at the start of the season. They could have rang people on that volunteer database, discussed what they could do, enthused the right people. You could have had volunteer induction etc, so the right paperwork, policies were adhered to. People could have been fitted to jobs.

Instead we had a paint night, with 2 days notice, fitting around Mike's shift patterns. This isn't personal, Mike, John etc do great work for the club in many ways, but this whole pre season has been badly thought out, poorly planned, has irritated regualr fans, and must have put off potential guests. All of that could have been avoided with more foresight.

[Jim]

Good post, Aberdeen. A lot of things seem to have been organised badly and we need to look at why and try to find ways to do things better in future, rather than hurl abuse at the club and make insulting comments about the Board. Regarding the comment about things being cut to the bone, that's because every penny is being directed towards the playing strength to keep us in this league. The way forward is surely to harness the considerable resources of volunteers and if I was on the Board that would be my first priority - to find a 'volunteer manager' or a volunteers' committee.

I agree that John's post was unfortunate and probably borne of frustration. We do all need to respect each other and work together for the good of the club, so perhaps apologies all round for things said in the heat of the moment?